Man found guilty of involuntary manslaughter

A Camp Lejeune Marine has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to nearly two years in prison for a fatal crash.

KATIE HANSEN - Daily News Staff

Updated at 5:31 p.m.

A Camp Lejeune Marine has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to nearly two years in prison for a fatal crash.

Garrett Michael Weaver, 23, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and three other moving violations for a 2011 automobile collision at the Onslow County Superior Courthouse Thursday afternoon.

Weaver pleaded not guilty, or not responsible, to the charges pivoting around the incident on July 20, 2011 that killed Myrna Gabriel-Parks, 27, of Jacksonville.

On July 20, 2011 at around 7 a.m., Gabriel-Parks was heading south on Hargett Street in a 2004 Nissan Sentra across Bell Fork Road on a green light when Weaver crashed the 1999 Chevrolet S-10 pickup truck he was driving on Bell Fork Road into her driver’s door, according to archived news reports.

The state, represented by Assistant District Attorney Mike Maultsby, told the jury that Weaver hit another SUV shortly before the wreck with Gabriel-Parks which proved reckless driving and culpable negligence.

“If he had stopped for the first collision, Mrs. Parks would still be alive,” Maultsby said.

The defense, which consists of Wilmington Attorney Brian Smith and Jacksonville Attorney John Ceruzzi, argued that the wreck was an accident which Weaver had no recollection of and witness testimony showed he was too confused to be culpable.

“He had lost his sense of time and place,” Smith said. “Mr. Weaver was trying to grasp what was going on.”

Smith also mentioned the possibility of symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder affecting the incident.

“That’s not involuntary manslaughter. That’s an accident,” he said.

The jury of six men and six women reached a verdict of guilty on all four counts Weaver faced in less than an hour. Weaver sat through the entire reading of the jury’s deliberations with his hands crossed and pressed tightly to his chin.

His father sat behind him with his face in his hands.

On the opposite side of the court room, Gabriel-Parks’ husband, 34-year-old Marine Timothy Parks, expressed his gratitude to the court.

Parks said the verdict was a “small something to make up for the pain and suffering” his family, including his two young daughters, had gone through.

“I would like to cry, but I can’t,” Parks said. “I have to be strong for them. So you know, it’s difficult.”

Parks now lives in New Jersey with his daughters where he is surrounded by family support. He has four months left in the service, after which he will devote his time to school and taking care of his girls, he said.

“We think that the jury’s verdict spoke the truth,” Maultsby said afterward outside the courtroom. “The truth was the defendant broke the law and tragically caused someone else’s death and he should be held accountable.”

Parks also added after leaving the courtroom that if he could give any advice to Weaver, he would tell him to “make better decisions, think before you do things, and if you need help and you know you need help regardless of whatever anyone else says, seek help.”

The defense claimed Weaver was suffering from occasional blackouts and “zoning out,” at times while he was driving, which he had been receiving medical treatment for before the collision and asked the judge not to sentence him to the full 16 to 20 months in prison.

However, Superior Court Judge Jack Jenkins said that if Weaver knew he was suffering from blackouts, he should not have continued driving.

In addition to 16 to 20 months, Weaver is ordered to pay cost of court fees and restitution in the amount of $14,000 to the Parks family for funeral costs.

“You can’t pay for the love that you’re never going to have as a result of your wife passing away or a mother passing away or a child passing away … but one of the real actual expenses is the funeral expenses,” Maultsby said.

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A jury found Garrett Michael Weaver, 23, guilty of involuntary manslaughter and three other moving violations during an automobile collision in 2011 at the Onslow County Superior Courthouse Thursday afternoon.

The trial began Tuesday. Weaver pleaded not guilty or not responsible to the charges pivoting around the incident on July 20, 2011 that killed Myrna Gabriel-Parks, 27, of Jacksonville.

“I’m very satisfied with the verdict,” said Gabriel-Parks' husband, Timothy Parks, following the trial.

Parks said the verdict was a “small something to make up for the pain and suffering” his family, including his two young daughters, had gone through.